Moreau takes Dauphiné double

Moreau takes Dauphiné double

Monday 18 June 2007 07.14 EDT
First published on Monday 18 June 2007 07.14 EDT

Christophe Moreau proved that at 36 he remains France's leading stage-race specialist after he won the Dauphiné Libéré for the second time yesterday. The Frenchman triumphed after a rain-hit final stage was won by Alexandre Vinokourov.

Six years after his first triumph in the gruelling eight-day event Moreau finished 14 seconds ahead of the Australian Cadel Evans and 1min 27sec up on Andrey Kashechkin of Kazakhstan. The A2R rider's stage wins at St Étienne and on Mont Ventoux last week made it clear he would be hard to beat. Then on Saturday's gruelling ride through the Alps the Frenchman dropped the overnight leader Kashechkin on the final climb of the stage to recapture first place overall.

"I won because I knew how to stay calm at the crucial moments," said Moreau afterwards. "Consistency rather than panicking, going all out and then losing time was the key. When I won at St Étienne and on the Mont Ventoux I knew I was on good form and could start thinking about overall victory."

Asked about his chances of success in the Tour de France Moreau was cautious. "Sure, this is a good sign but I don't want to make too many predictions."

The second stage of the Tour de Suissewas won in a sprint finish by the German Erik Zabel while Fabian Cancellara kept the leader's yellow jersey by finishing third. Zabel completed the 157km (97.5m) stage from Olten to Lucerne in 4hr 4min 57sec. Daniele Bennati of Italy, who finished second in Saturday's time-trial, was second again.

"With two big climbs in the final kilo-metres, the stage was quite difficult," Zabel said. "And it could have ended differently. The final stretch was close."

In the final kilometre Greg Rast of Switzerland skidded out of control on a left-hand turn and brought down several other riders with him, though the front 10 racers escaped.

Stuart O'Grady was fourth while Murilo Fischer of Brazil crossed fifth, followed by Robbie McEwen, all with the same time as Zabel who scored his first ProTour victory since taking a pair of stages at the Spanish Vuelta last year.

It was also his first Pro-Tour win since admitting in May taking performance-enhancing drugs during the 1996 Tour de France. Among a group of former Telekom riders who admitted taking the blood booster erythropoietin in the 1990s, Zabel is the only rider still active. His current team, Milram, are keeping him until the end of the year before ruling on whether to honour the last year on his contract.